Charged Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Wappingers Falls, New York, USA · 2023

Lama Norlha Rinpoche / Kagyu Thubten Choling: sangha disclosure and federal abuse lawsuit

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Charged

Authority role

founding abbot and incarnate lama of a Karma Kagyu monastery

Organization

Kagyu Thubten Choling

Spiritual nexus

Norlha used his position and authority as founding abbot and incarnate lama over students in multi-year retreats, where guru-devotion and dependence on the teacher for retreat guidance are documented as preventing resistance or disclosure for decades.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2023-11-17 · civil suit filed (Trafficking Victims Protection Act; NY Adult Survivors Act)

U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Lama Norlha Rinpoche, founding abbot of Kagyu Thubten Choling, was found by a 2017 sangha-wide disclosure (facilitated by An Olive Branch) to have been sexually involved with multiple female students over decades. In November 2023 three women sued the monastery and named officials in the Southern District of New York under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and New York's Adult Survivors Act. Norlha died in 2018.

Documented coercion mechanisms

authority over students in prolonged retreats
guru-dependency preventing disclosure

Primary record

Sources

institutional reporting charging report 'Lawsuit Alleges Decades of Sexual Assault at Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in New York', Buddhistdoor Global, 17 Nov. 2023.: Reports the SDNY federal lawsuit under the TVPA and Adult Survivors Act over decades of alleged abuse at Kagyu Thubten Choling.
institutional reporting institutional acknowledgment 'Kagyu Thubten Choling addresses sangha about Lama Norlha Rinpoche's sexual misconduct with students', Lion's Roar (2017).: Documents the 2017 sangha-wide disclosure of Norlha's sexual misconduct with students.

Contextual record

Background & context

Institutional and pattern-level sources on Buddhist institutions and contexts, not specific to this one case.

Islington Gazette (2022) ''Shameful': Sogyal Rinpoche's Cally Buddhist charity Rigpa 'put students at risk of harm', Charity Commission finds', Islington Gazette. Available at: islingtongazette.co.uk (Accessed: 14 July 2026).: 'An official inquiry from the Charity Commission found there had been misconduct, mismanagement and serious safeguarding failures at Rigpa Fellowship', the UK charity of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche (author of ‘The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying’). The Commission's chief executive stated: 'The fact that students were subjected to abuse by somebody in a position of power is shameful.' Note: this is a statutory regulatory finding, not a criminal conviction — Sogyal died in 2019 without facing trial, and the underlying allegations remained legally unproven.
Wickwire Holm (2019) 'Report of the Investigation into Claims of Sexual Misconduct within the Shambhala Community' [independent law-firm investigation commissioned by Shambhala and released by its own Interim Board, 3 February 2019]. Available at: shambhala.report (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: The investigation Shambhala commissioned into its own leader, released by its own board — two of the three completed claims investigations 'concern Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche', the head of the lineage founded by his father Chögyam Trungpa. The investigator found: 'Several of the witnesses I had already spoken to confirmed that this incident took place. Indeed, the Sakyong admitted to kissing Claimant No. 1 as alleged... I find Claimant No. 1 to be a creditable witness', and concluded: 'his actions and behavior on that night constitute sexual misconduct.' Tier note: this is an organization-commissioned investigation with a formal finding and a partial admission — not a criminal proceeding. No criminal conviction exists in the Shambhala matter: the one prosecution of a Boulder Shambhala meditation teacher (William Karelis) was dismissed by the DA in 2021 before trial, and the movement's earlier documented history — including Trungpa's conduct and his regent Ösel Tendzin knowingly transmitting HIV, who died in 1990 without charges — was never adjudicated. Each fact is recorded here at exactly its weight.

Related record

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